In my last post, I explored the value created by Customer Relationships. But for many Customer Success Managers (and other roles too) tasked with capturing that value, the ‘how’ can be a bit of a mystery. After spending the past decade working on building customer relationships, I’ve worked to distill it into what I call the Relationship Flywheel. In this post, we’re going to break down the complex machine that is a customer relationship. 

1) Understand: "Seek First to Understand, Then to Be Understood"

The famous quote tells us the place to start. The first part of the business relationship machine is your ability to understand your customers. But this understanding can’t be superficial. We spend a lot of time pretending to understand not taking the time to really, deeply understand. As the bedrock of the customer relationship, it’s important to internalize what true customer understanding looks like. 

The best-in-class relationship builders know this about their customers:

• What they do: Understand their role within the organization, their responsibilities, and their day-to-day 
• Who they work with: Identify key stakeholders and decision-makers in their team
• What they want: Know what goals they aim to achieve in their role
• Why they do this job: Discover their motivations and career aspirations. (In my experience, most CSMs don’t spend enough time on this one!)

But don’t also forget to consider how you fit into their world:

• How they view the product: Identify how they think your product can help them achieve their goals
• How they view you: Understand their expectations and attitudes toward your role as a CSM

You’re going to have to work for some of these elements. There isn’t some 3rd party data that can give you insight on, say, someone’s desire to smash quota and get promoted next quarter - you have to go to the source! When you get a good understanding of the customer, you can start to empathize with them. If you can demonstrate empathy, you can start building trust.

2) Trust: Business Runs on Trust

Trust is at the center of the relationship machine. It’s the heart, the central element that holds everything together. Trust is also an easy differentiator. There are millions of companies worldwide, but how many companies does your customer trust?  If you can build it, you put yourself and your company by extension in rarified air. Here are three strategies to foster trust with your customers:

• Empathy: Show the customer all the work you did to understand them
• Consistency: Be reliable and follow through on your commitments. If you promise to do something, make sure you do it
• Transparency: Be honest and open about challenges, solutions, and expectation

Building trust requires authenticity on your part (and theirs), and it also takes time! But if you can secure it, it is the necessary launching point for the main job of the CSM: Influence.

3) Influence: The Real Job of Customer Success

There is a lot of discourse about the role of the CSM and why the teams exist. I have more on that which I’ll save for a future post. But the reason companies hire CSMs is to change fate itself. They pay CSMs to turn the pessimist into a champion, the lost renewal into an expansion, and the stagnant customer into a new use case. 

However, this does not come for free. I’ve seen CSMs try to shortcut to influence and find their attempts at influence rejected. In the relationship machine, though influence might be the most important to hit your targets, it only works if the other two parts are working: 

• Demonstrating Understanding: When proposing a renewal or expansion, refer to what you know about the customer. This shows that you're not just pushing a sale but truly understand their needs
• Leveraging Trust: Use the trust you've built to recommend actions that align with the customer's goals. Note: don’t exploit that trust! Make sure you’re transparent about how helping the customers’ goals will also help your goals

Even though the whole point of our jobs as CSMs is to influence, it's NOT the first step. These three elements work hand in hand with each other. When influence is successfully achieved, it then creates more opportunities to understand thus creating the relationship flywheel!

Unlocking Affinity

So we have this great productive relationship machine, but what does it produce? When you consistently deliver these elements, you unlock something called Affinity. Affinity itself is almost intangible but the results of it are certainly tangible. It is the love of your customers that results in loyalty toward your company. 

I’ve seen the value of affinity many times in my career whether it is helping save the business in a time of uncertainty or breaking ties (and trust me there are a lot of ties) 

By focusing on understanding, building trust, and leveraging influence, CSMs can drive renewal and expansion while fostering long-lasting customer relationships. This approach not only benefits the company's bottom line but also creates a more enjoyable and rewarding experience for customers and CSMs alike.

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